Consecutive no-hit pitching records

Ashwin Chona from Sage Hill of Newport Beach breaks CIF Southern Section record by throwing third straight no-hitter on Thursday in 16-0 win vs. Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana. But he still has work to do for a state record.

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While sophomore Ashwin Chona has become the first CIF Southern Section player reported with three straight no-hitters, the oddity of the category in the Cal-Hi Sports state record files is that the tiny CIF Northern Section has had three separate pitchers over the years set the state record with four in a row.

Ashwin Chona is making a name for himself at Sage Hill for throwing no-hitters. Photo: SageHillSchool.org.

Chona notched his third straight Thursday in a 16-0 victory by the Lighting vs. Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana. It was a five-inning game, which counts toward no-hitter streaks. No other details were immediately available. His first no-hitter in the streak came with 13 strikeouts in a 9-0 win vs. Whitney of Cerritos in late March. That game went the full seven innings, but the second no-hitter in Chona’s streak did not. That was a five-inning no-no when Sage Hill blanked Santa Rosa Academy of Menifee 10-0 on March 27.

Heading into Thursday, Chona was tied with 15 previous instances of CIF Southern Section pitchers getting two straight no-hitters. The list includes former State Player of the Year Scott McGregor of El Segundo (1972) and Jared Moon of Redondo Beach Redondo Union (1996), who previously was listed with the state record for consecutive hitless innings at 23 and still would have that record for the CIFSS ahead of Chona at 18, who had one hitless inning relief appearance (according to his MaxPreps page) in addition to the three straight no-hitters since March 8.

For many years, the state record was reported at three straight no-hitters by Lloyd Allen of Selma set in 1967. In 2010, East Nicolaus of Nicolaus senior John Kukuruda tossed four straight no-hitters (three of those were in five-inning games), but at the time of reporting that record Cal-Hi Sports was informed of another one of four that was set in 1963 by Byron Randolph of Winters. Info from Winters and our own files confirmed that record. Randolph’s four straight also were all in seven-inning games (no five-inning affairs) and he’s also now credited with the state record with 34 consecutive no-hit innings.

Then the very next season in 2011, Steven Perry of Maxwell tied Kukuruda’s and Randolph’s record with four in a row. Perry almost had a fifth straight no-hitter as well, but gave up a bloop single in the second inning for the only hit he allowed.

On the state list, therefore after Thursday, Chona is tied for second with Selma’s Lloyd Allen and needs another no-hitter to tie the state record of four held by the three players all from the CIF Northern Section (Randolph, Kukuruda and Perry).

As you can see, however, this category has become mainly for small schools where five-inning dominations are much more normal and the details can be difficult to confirm, correct and obtain.

Just last year, remember, we had a team at Sonoma Academy with a reported six straight no-hitters (again a lot of five-inning rout games) but not one player with three or four in a row. Dylan De La Montanya of that team was credited with 21 hitless innings, but the team total was revised to four based on a controversial scoring decision. There were no reports of any such scoring decision — an error given instead of a hit — in Sage Hill’s games involving Chona.

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